Production Weekly is reporting that Ralph Fiennes is set to star in The Gifted for writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes. The pic is based on a New Yorker story “The Gift” about the life of controversial philanthropist Zell Kravinsky. He made millions in real estate and over the past six years he has given it all—nearly 45 million dollars of assets—away. He kept for himself only a modest house. But this was not enough. In 2003 he donated his kidney to a stranger who needed it. Estes is eyeing a Spring production start in New York.
The article also goes on to say that Fiennes will soon be making his directorial debut on Snow Country a film based on the Japanese novel “Yukiguni” by Yasunari Kawabata. The story is of a wasted love set amid the desolate beauty of northern Canada, the snowiest region on earth. Adapted by Nicholas Rohl, the love story chronicles the affair between a wealthy sophisticate and a 17-year-old Inuit girl being raised in a convent, who gives herself to him without illusions or regrets, knowing that their passion cannot last. Production is slated to begin September with locations in Toronto, Winnipeg and in the Arctic.
In the meantime you can check out Fiennes as he is set to return to the bigscreen as Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix next year, the teaser trailer just hit the web, you can check it out right here.
